SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Handel, J S Bach, Smalley, Haydn: Mark Padmore (tenor), Australian Chamber Orchestra, Richard Tognetti (violin and director). Wigmore Hall, London, 21.4.2008 (BBr)

Georg Frideric Handel: Concerto Grosso in D minor, op.6, no.10 (1739)
J S Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 (c1730)
J S Bach: Cantata No.82, Ich habe genug (1727)
Roger Smalley: Strung Out for thirteen solo strings (1987/1988)
Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.64 in A, Tempora mutantur (c1773)


I have always enjoyed the visits of the Australian Chamber Orchestra ever since I first heard them at the Brighton Festival in 1988, the year before Richard Tognetti took responsibility for it. In his 19 years at the helm he’s brought a freshness to programme building, to the playing and interpretation, made arrangements for them to play (the Pavel Haas 2^nd String Quartet and a couple of the Debussy Préludes, for instance) and overseeing many premières of commissioned works.

Tonight’s concert was fairly typical of the Orchestra, albeit a bit unbalanced. The first half gave us the baroque; solid accounts of Handel and Bach, with Mark Padmore, surely one of our best tenors currently at work in the concert hall, a sympathetic soloist in Ich habe genug. The problem was that from where I was sitting the sound was bass heavy and the harpsichord albut inaudible; placing this most unassuming of keyboard instruments as if the player were conducting instead of side on to the audience with the lid up on a short stick did it no favours. And when Neal Peres da Costa changed to a small organ for the slow movement of the Bach Concerto and the whole of the Cantata there was hardly any audible difference.

After the interval, things changed. Smalley’s Strung Out was conceived for the 13 players to be placed in a straight line – two groups of six with the bass in the central position, separating them. This is a fine work. Starting as a frenetic moto perpetuo, punctuated by short moments of stasis, the music gradually metamorphoses into slower music punctuated by brief recollections of the fast music. In his programme note Smalley does himself a disservice by failing to mention the rich and intense lyricism of the slow music; this was bold writing, long melodic lines growing in passion, power and beauty. Fabulous stuff.

The Haydn Symphony which followed was full of high spirits in the outer movements and minuet surrounding a slow movement of great probity. There was some reminiscence of the earlier Sturm und Drang works, nothing wrong with that, but this is Haydn moving into new territory, creating bigger and stronger works, with more variety in material and texture. For some reason it was thought fit to include the harpsichord (albut inaudible again) as continuo. Surely by this time Haydn had stopped using a continuo in his works. Everything here was clear and crisp, with a fine balance between the players – except the keyboard.

We were treated to two encores. The first was the finale from Ravel’s String Quartet in an arrangement by Tognetti which made it sound like a full blown symphonic movement, so powerful was the playing – I’ll never hear if in the same way again when I listen to the original version. Then, to finish the evening, Mark Padmore rejoined the Orchestra for a gorgeous Schumann miniature, in a subtle and beautiful arrangement by, I assume, Tognetti.

A fine concert yet I do feel that it would have been better to have dropped the Bach Concerto and given us another Australian work, both to compliment the Smalley and show us another side of Australian composition, the Orchestra has more than sufficient works in its repertoire for this. But I am carping a bit now. It was marvelous to welcome back the Australian Chamber Orchestra and to hear its fresh and exciting music making.

Bob Briggs 


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